1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an electroluminescent (EL) display. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to an EL display providing an improved protection to its internal components from external electrostatic discharge.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an electroluminescent (EL) display is a flat panel display device employing a light emitting diode (LED) activated by combination of electrons and holes from a cathode and an anode, respectively, in a light emitting layer of the LED. In other words, the LED may include a light emitting layer between the anode and the cathode, so that applied voltage may trigger electron/hole flow from the cathode/anode into the light emitting layer to activate light emission. Such EL displays may be employed in mobile communication terminals, navigation devices, personal display assistances (PDAs), camcorders, and so forth.
A conventional EL display may be driven by a passive matrix (PM) technique or by an active matrix (AM) technique. The PM technique may refer to a driving technique where lines of anodes and cathodes orthogonal to each other may be selected to drive light emission cells. The AM technique may refer to a driving technique where each emission cell may be driven by a thin film transistor (TFT) via received and stored voltage signals. The AM technique may have better luminance and lower power consumption as compared to the PM technique, and thus, may be employed in EL displays having high resolution, wide viewing angles, quick response time, and reduced thickness.
However, a reduced thickness of the conventional EL display, e.g., about 1 mm to about 2 mm, may be insufficient to shield internal elements thereof, e.g., the LED, from external electrostatic impacts. For example, a strong flow of an electrostatic discharge, e.g., voltage of about several thousands of volts or several tens of thousand volts, into the EL display may damage or break internal elements thereof and, thereby, produce a soft fail phenomenon, i.e., temporary flickering of a displayed image, or a hard fail phenomenon, i.e., a complete failure to display images due to permanent damage to a circuit or a pixel in the EL display. Accordingly, there exists a need for an EL display capable of providing sufficient protection to internal elements thereof from external electrostatic impacts.